Please note: the Bowhill event on 19 May won’t be in the normal car park behind the big house, instead we’re using the estate staff car park at Weatherhouse, just off the Ettrickbridge road. Click on the “upcoming events” details to the right hand side of this page and you’ll find a map.
If you go up the main estate road past the adventure playground you’re liable to be charged an admittance fee !
Results of today’s event are HERE
Elibank is a hidden orienteering gem, a reasonable path network, some complex contours and at this time of year, good runnability. Just a pity it isn’t several times larger!
I was very impressed that Andrew and Michael did the yellow course so well having never orienteered before and also that Faisal’s lead time was so fast.
It was good that the seniors all opted for the Orange ++ course, as there were some very technical legs. With so many similar/parallel features it’s easy to lose time but it’s a good area to practice skills.
Thanks to Barry, Lindsey and Rob for helping and thanks to everyone else for coming – by June the bracken will make Elibank impossible, so you enjoyed it at its best.
Robin
Leg 8-9 seems to have been challenging, judging by the splits:
- Planner’s comment: I think the quickest and safest route would be to contour out of #8, after about 400m drop into the prominent NW/SE re-entrant (1), follow it until starting to descend (2), then compass 100m to the easterly crag (3), drop down and round to the control. In a “proper” event, I wouldn’t have brought you back to #10 – but there was control there already on the Orange course so thought it should be used!! Robin


Looks like no-one else is going to add a JK report, so here goes!
Friday: Sprint Day at Livingston, it drizzled rain a fair bit of the day. The street part was straightforward then I messed up the non-street bit at the end. Bill and Robin both mis-punched. Best result was Kirstin’s 4th place on W20E. Then we manned a slightly unorganised Start (not our fault !).
Saturday: Dunalastair, scene of one of my more memorable Controlling experiences from a 6-Days, although that was in the east end of the map not used this time. Enjoyed walking/jogging and finding the controls more or less spot on, even if my route choice could have been better. Not a great Assembly Area so most people mingled in the car park instead. Good results from John (2nd on M55L), Eileen (2nd on W45S) and Kirstin (3rd on W20E).
Sunday: Craig a Barns. Very messy underfoot in places after winter storms, and some tricky navigating. Robin came up with 3 excuses for a bad first control – lost contact lens, 90 degree error and dibber whipped off his finger. You just don’t get this type of excitement at cross country races ! A cracking run from Douglas T, winning M21E, finishing 2nd overall. John sealed an overall win by taking 2nd on the day. Kirstin’s 4th place was enough for 3rd overall.
Monday: Relays at Newtyle. I wasn’t there but the EUOC team with Douglas on lead-off leg finished 2nd. We hadn’t managed to scrape together an RR team.

Kirstin, John, Douglas
Full results are HERE
Having booked our accommodation and entered while I was fit and healthy I was a bit apprehensive on my way to the Start of the British Sprint Championships at York University on Saturday morning as I wasn’t feeling brilliant. However, once I got going I really enjoyed the run, probably running slower than normal meant I was navigating better. Only 3 of us made it into the A finals – Fiona on W35 who finished with a podium place in 2nd, Robin on M65 who was 5th, and me in 7th. Barry had a good consolation run in winning the M40 B-final. The last part of the Finals were round a tricky loop near the Finish with loads of controls to confuse the knackered. Jim returned from his cycle in time to watch the confusion and also cheer me into the Finish. The afternoon had turned into glorious weather and we had a nice sit in the sun before cycling back to the youth hostel.
Interestingly, the women’s elite winner disqualified herself as she realised she’d run through an out-of-bounds garden near the Finish. On the ground it was just a few bushes with big gaps, but in full view of the spectators she avoided a lot of controversy by DQ’ing herself. Officials promptly taped off the area to avoid anyone else doing the same thing, but this might result in different controversy as they made things different for later runners !
The British Middle Championships were held about 3 miles north-east of York at Strensall Arm Camp, a (very) flat area with lots of small features such as ditches, 1 foot deep depressions, man-made cairns and “significant trees”. It was another glorious day though, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Most Reivers managed to make at least one cock-up but we did get one podium place – Kirstin had an excellent run to finish 3rd on W20E. John finished 6th equal on M55 but had trouble reading some of the colours on the map. Barry had another good one, finishing 12th on the competitive M40 class and getting a championship standard time. I had a slow (but mainly sure) run round and finished slightly less puggled than the day before.
I hadn’t done these races before but I really enjoyed the format – 2 short and 1 medium race in one weekend. All the courses had short legs and lots of changes of direction, so quick decision-making was needed rather than taking time to plan a good route. The 2013 event is at Loughborough and Matlock, and is definitely worth considering again.
Thanks to everyone for coming along today to sample the Borders on a beautiful sunny day.
The full results are now available on the ESOA website HERE
Routegadget (draw your route) HERE
Winsplits are HERE
| String course results |
|
|
|
|
|
| Eliza Finney |
W10 |
5 mins 48 secs |
| Jake Finney |
M8 |
10 mins 35 secs |
| Mairi Eades |
W11 |
4 mins 45 secs |
| Fiona Eades |
W7 |
11 mins 32 secs |
| Lucy Reid |
W11 |
4 mins 40 secs |
| James Ackland |
M14 |
3 mins 38 sec |
Comments from the Planner (Robert Cranston)
Thank you for supporting Roxburgh Reivers event on the Eildon Hills. I hope you had an enjoyable run. If you didn’t enjoy the orienteering I trust the splendid vistas that Eildon Hills offer were some compensation. It was a pleasure to plan an event on the Eildons. Thanks are due to Buccleuch Estates for allowing use of their ground for this RR event.
Glancing at the winning times on each of the courses suggests that most of the courses were about right in terms of distance. The major blip was the orange, where the finishing times were much longer than I intended. For some on this course the control at the boulder (118) caused problems and this control seemed also to cause difficulty for some on the Green course. There were mutterings of extra paths and rock features not shown on the map. I apologise if you feel any map omissions spoiled your run. I hope also that you didn’t feel there was too much climbing on your course and that there were enough sections of good running.
Brown and Blue course runners ran over ground that had never seen a human foot for many years! Recent gorse clearing by the Estate has opened up new areas of fast open ground and I tried to utilise these with the choice of some control sites. I believe the gorse clearing is to continue so this will open up a few new possible legs for future events.
I can’t claim credit for planning the weather that should go to organiser John Tullie! As ever lots of RR members came out to help on the day and ensured the smooth operation of car-parking, registration, start, finish and all the other myriad of jobs which make up an orienteering event. Three Reivers deserved particular mention: John Tullie for his meticulous organisation setting up the event and coordinating helpers, Lindsey Knox for all things computerate(?) and Robin Sloan for his great work trying to ensure the map bore some similarity to the ground it represented. Robin also helped set out the controls as did Paul McGreal. John Biggar controlled the event in his usual light and relaxed manner and is always good fun to work with. At the end of the event I was very grateful for the many who volunteered to collect controls: Paul and Robin(again), Pauline McAdam, Eileen & Ian Maxwell, Carol Boyd, Bill Bruce, James Purves and Keith Murray.
A challenging day for quite a few people today due to the nasty weather and tricky bits on the courses, but thanks to everyone who supported the event and I hope you’re all thawed out now. The plethora of paths on the hill is, in many ways, not helpful but at least you couldn’t get too far lost when bounded by roads, fields and the golf course. Thanks to Rob and John for help with the Start and control collecting.
You all have quite impressive times between the last control and the Finish – your overall time is correct and the Finish unit is correct, but the internal clock on control 112 is about 35 seconds out.
Results are HERE
The information for our SoSOL has been updated via the link on the right hand side. You can download a PDF flyer there too.
It’s Entry on the Day only.
The 2012 orienteering season came in with a bang at the weekend with the traditional start in Edinburgh. Organised by Edinburgh University, the weekend attracts runners from all over the UK who enjoy 2 days of competition plus a ceilidh and Burns Supper.
With UK Urban League points at stake, the race round the streets and alleyways of the city on Saturday attracted a large entry and it was good to have Roxburgh Reivers back into their winning ways with top places for Robin Sloan and Lindsey Knox. Kirstin Maxwell, Fiona Forrest and Ian Maxwell had exceptional runs too, finishing in 2nd place in their age classes.
John Tullie addressed the haggis at the ceilidh and a good night was had by all.
On Sunday the runners took part in a competition round a windy Holyrood Park. There were wins for Ian Maxwell, Robin Sloan and John Tullie, with Barry Veitch and Fiona Forrest both taking the runners-up spot.
Results are HERE
A much better day for the weather this year and another good turnout for both the Come and Try It and Championships.
Duncan Shiell took the honours in the Championships, closely followed by Lindsey Knox.

|
Pos.
|
Name
|
Age
|
Handicap
|
Time
|
|
1
|
Duncan Shiell
|
M60
|
8
|
00:27:23
|
|
2
|
Lindsey Knox
|
W50
|
11
|
00:27:48
|
|
3
|
Eileen Maxwell
|
W45
|
11
|
00:31:38
|
|
4
|
Robert Cranston
|
M45
|
11
|
00:31:57
|
|
5
|
Karen Maxwell
|
W18
|
12
|
00:32:39
|
|
6
|
William Bruce
|
M55
|
9
|
00:34:11
|
|
7
|
James Purves
|
M50
|
10
|
00:34:44
|
|
8
|
Susan Shiell
|
W60
|
6
|
00:35:43
|
|
9
|
Paul McGreal
|
M40
|
13
|
00:37:25
|
|
10
|
Robin Sloan
|
M65
|
12
|
00:37:25
|
|
11
|
John Tullie
|
M55
|
16
|
00:42:43
|
Results for the Yellow and Orange are HERE, along with the splits for the Championships.
An excellent turnout of 20 members and friends gathered in Hawick for a Score event disguised as a game of snakes and ladders. Karen Maxwell and Sandy Burgon both managed to complete their board in only 5 moves and 12 “points” from the 54 available, managing to hit 2 of the 3 ladders and none of the 3 snakes, so finished 1st equal.

Boxing Day 2011
Results of the Score part are HERE
The game board is HERE
Routegadget is HERE. There may be other ways of doing this but I followed Paul Frost’s tutorial. The trick to making it look sensible is to untick the box on the right hand side marked “Course on/Off”.
Lindsey